Wimbledon

 Finally with restrictions being lifted I have been able to visit another Underground station. However I have only visited the outside of the station as I decided to drive here rather than use public transport. As Wimbledon is south of the river it is not a long journey but I will admit it is cheating, but needs must at the moment. If I am ever to finish this challenge I need to move the goalposts. 

This is Wimbledon, the 47th station I have visited on the District Line. The station is used by National Rail, London Underground and Tramlink. It is the only station in London to provide an interchange between the Underground (District Line) and Tramlink. The station has 11 platforms. The first station in Wimbledon opened in 1838 when the London and South Western Railway opened its line from the terminus at Nine Elms in Battersea to Woking. The original station was on the opposite side of Wimbledon Bridge. In 1889 the District Railway, now the London Underground District Line extended its line from Putney Bridge to Wimbledon, making its terminus here. The station was then moved to its current site. The current station was built from Portland stone in the 1920s when Southern Rail was extended to Sutton.

The new tramlink service was opened in 2000. In 1997  platform 10 was closed as rail tracks had to be replaced with those for the tram system. In 2015 platform 10 was split into two tram platforms to allow for more trams.

Wimbledon is two different areas under one name. Close to the station you have a busy High Street with familiar chains of shops and cafes but at the top of the hill is Wimbledon Village with its artisan bakers, coffee shops and small independent shops.

Near the station is a sculpture of a stag. It was produced by local artist, Isabelle Southward in 2012. It was inspired by another sculpture of a stag on top of Stag Lodge in Wimbledon Village. The artist wanted to link urban Wimbledon with the heritage of Wimbledon Common just a short distance away. I wrote about the Common when I visited Southfields station.

Another popular sculpture nearby is this one designed by Andre Wallace. This eight foot sculpture is actually called 'Walking Women' but is known locally as 'Two fat ladies'. The sculpture was first unveiled in 1992 outside the Centre Court shopping centre but had to be removed twenty years later whilst work was carried out to upgrade the station's forecourt. It was returned to in 2012 to the delight of local shoppers.

This white, Victorian building is the Old Town Hall close to the railway station.  The ground floor is now a Tesco convenience store whilst the upper floors are offices.

You can still see the Coat of Arms on the wall above the shop. It has the latin motto on it'Sine Labe Decus' Honour without stain' .

Turning left from the station I came across the  New Wimbledon Theatre which is not so new as it opened over a hundred years ago in 1910. When built it had the unusual feature of Turkish Baths in the basement which were used by the actors. The remains of the baths can apparently still be seen from the theatre bar.

On top of the theatre is a globe on which stands the golden winged figure of the Goddess of Gaiety. She is holding a laurel crown, a symbol of success and celebration.

Further along the Broadway on the opposite side of the road is the Polka theatre. It was opened in 1979 by the Queen Mother and is specifically for young audiences.

There didn't appear to be much more to see in this direction so I turned back to walk in the opposite direction past the railway station. On the corner of Alexander Road and the Broadway Joseph Ely opened his first store in 1876 more or less opposite this present shop which he opened ten years later.
 When the trams linked Wimbledon with nearby towns in the early 20th cent, the conductors would shout out 'Ely's Corner' and were rewarded with 'gifts' from the store.

Across the road is the Alexandra pub. It was built in 1876 and its name refers to Princess Alexandra of Denmark  who was married to Edward, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Queen Victoria,  in 1863

Ten years after the pub was built, this building was opened as a 'free library'. Prior to this, readers paid to join subscription libraries and reading clubs.  At its opening the library had 6000 books and within a year one in twelve of the locals had registered to use the facilities. Terracotta decorations in the form of bookshelves on the side of the building.

Built from ornate red brick it has a number of attractive features.

On the next corner is this impressive bank building 

Built in 186/7 the building has numerous decorative features. It is no longer a bank and seems destined to become a budget hotel.

Also on Wimbledon Hill is Wimbledon High School. It is a private girls' school which opened in 1880. In 1908 the Olympics were held in London  and the current school sports field once housed the original All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The pavilion in the grounds is probably the only building standing that hosted the 1908 London Olympics.

Much of Wimbledon Hill was bombed during WW2 by V1 bombs.

 Near the top of the hill is The White House - the only remaining example of the Victorian mansions which used to line this road. It was built in the 1860s and is supposed to be haunted.

 

This is the Toynbee memorial fountain erected by the working men of Wimbledon. It was built in memory of Joseph Toynbee.

Joseph Toynbee was a surgeon and was head of the first ear and throat disease department at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. He was active within the local community and in 1859 he founded the Village Club in Wimbledon. A new facility it had a reading room, library and a hall for for 'penny readings' of poems and stories. He was only 50 when he died. Tragically, he was found dead in his consulting room after accidently inhaling prussic acid and chloroform in what was thought to have been a scientific experiment to test a remedy for tinnitus. 

 

 

Note the unusual decorative turret. 

The fountain marks the beginning of  Wimbledon village. 

This is another impressive bank building. Originally the London and Counties Bank. (you can see the logo on the side of the Turret) before it became a Nat West bank. It is no longer a bank and I can only assume that it has been converted for residential usage but the detailed carving is extraordinary.

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This pub was first mentioned in 1617 in a survey commissioned by the Lord of the Manor, and was known as My Lord's Arms. It is now called The Dog and Fox , with that name being shown on a map dated 1776.  It was used for meetings of the Volunteers, a forerunner of the Home Guard, set up to repel any Napoleonic invasion. The land behind the pub was used for drill practice. It would also have been an important stop for London stagecoaches and from what I have read it still has stables at the back of the building.  It is still a hotel as well as a pub.

Across the road in the middle of the village is the Old Fire station complete with its bell tower and clock. From 1869 the village had been protected by a volunteer group of fire fighters operating hand pumps from a shed next to the Dog and Fox. Then in 1890 this fire station was built almost opposite the Dog and Fox. The building housed a horse drawn steam pump called 'The May Queen'. The bell tower was replaced in 1968 during a facelift of the village. After a large  fire in 1900 it was found that there were not enough hoses to pump water from the Rushmere pond. Consequently a new fire station was built in Queens Road with a full time professional force in 1907.

A little further down the road, still in the  village is this large Jacobean Manor, Eagle House which was built in 1613 for Robert Bell, Master of the Worshipful company of Girdlers and co-founder and director of the British East India Company. Bell's father and grandfather were both Wimbledon residents and he inherited the site.. After dying childless, the house passed through many hands.

In 1789 it became a school for 'Young Gentlemen and Noblemen'. In the 1840s, Eagle House was home to a military Academy. In 187 the house was purchased by an architect who restored it to its pre school days. After WW" it was used as offices until 1989 when it became an Islamic heritage and cultural centre until the foundation relocated in 2009.

This is the sign outside the house now.

I walked  back through the village and turned right at the top of the hill onto Church Road and came across this lane with a basic wooden  turnstile at its entrance. Dairy Walk or Dairymaids Walk has been a right of way since the 16th century. It links St Mary's Church at the top of the hill with Manor Farm. Whilst the gentry would travel to the church in their carriages, servants would have taken a short cut  along this lane instead of the roads. 

Further down Church Road is the gold post box in honour of Andy Murray, the tennis player, winning a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics. He also won gold in the 2016 Olympics.

If I continued down the hill I would come to AELTC Wimbledon which I wrote about when I visited Southfields station. 

So it was now time to make my way back to the town centre. 

 I walked back along Church Road and turned left down St Mary's Road. This is Stag Lodge which marked the entrance to Earl Spencer's estate. The original stag was removed for safety during WW2 but was lost! This one is a replacement.

Down the drive from the Lodge is St Mary's church. For those of you who watch Wimbledon on the TV you will have seen the spire of this church many times as the cameras pan away from the courts to the church spire on the top of the hill. The first church recorded on this site was in 1086 and its history can be traced back to the Doomsday book. 

The Doomsday book was a complete written record of property ownership across England. It included all landowners and their tenants as well as their land. It also included anyone who lived on the land from villagers to slaves. As it described how the land was used and also every building on the land the Doomsday book has been a great source of information about medieval times. The survey was carried out on the orders of William the Conqueror as a way of stopping the Lords of the land arguing over ownership. It also made sure that he collected all taxes that were due to him. Remarkably it took just one year to complete in 1086. The original book is kept in the National Archives but copies and translations are easily available to buy. 

The church has been rebuilt and renovated over the centuries. the current building dates from the mid 1800s and was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott. In 1956 the then vicar had the foresight to buy St Mary's field next door for £250 with the covenant that it had to be kept as open space. Since 1969 the field has been used as a car park during Wimbledon fortnight and has been a huge fundraiser for the church and local charities. 

In the churchyard is a large pyramid made of Portland Stone in memory of Gerard de Visme who died in 1797. He lived at Wimbledon Lodge and left money for the upkeep of his tomb and for bread to be given to the poor 'in the winter months'.

I returned to the town centre via the backs streets and noticed this as I emerged back onto the High Street. Based on the single by the Icelandic singer Bjork, the mural refers to the decline in birdsong. It features a male and female sparrow whose songs we do not hear so much these days.

Walking back towards the station you can't miss this large Victorian pub with its impressive tiled frontage. It was built during the early years of the railway arriving in Wimbledon and no doubt still takes its trade from many of the commuters on their way home from work.

Wimbledon Park

 This is the 46th station out of 60 that I have visited on the District Line. I managed to photograph this one just before the stricter travel rules were implemented due to Covid. Now we are on complete lockdown I'm not sure when I will be able to visit another station! The station was opened by the District Railway in June 1889 on an extension line from Putney Bridge to Wimbledon. The extension was built by the London and South Western Railway. 

An island platform similar to the previous station. It is a long platform, possibly because it is within walking distance of the All England Tennis Club at Wimbledon.

A number of steps take you to the small ticket hall and entrance. The station is supposed to be updated by 2022 to allow step free access. No sign of that happening yet.

You can see the date and the name of the railway on the brickwork above the station building. Electric trains began running in August 1905 but by 1941 main line services no longer stopped at Wimbledon Park. The line remained in British Rail ownership until April 1994 when it was transferred to London Underground. South Western trains still run through the station early in the morning but do not stop.

The station exits onto a small high Street with a number of small independent shops. As with many shops a number of them have changed use over the years but there are a few that have not changed their usage for over a hundred years.

Some of the shops have the original green tiled decorations surrounding the doorways.

This delicatessen/bakery looked particularly attractive with its bay windows surrounded by the green tiling.

 

Once the railway arrived then house building was undertaken at a very fast rate. It had a growing Catholic population but no local church. The area was looked after by the Jesuit priests from the Sacred Heart parish in Wimbledon. It was decided a more local one was needed. However restrictions were put upon its usage so that only one mass was allowed on a Sunday. Although a new church was started it was never completed. It was covered with  corrugated iron and known as the 'Tank'. It was 1926 before permission was granted by the Bishop for the present church to be built. It was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, better known for his design of Battersea Power station and the iconic red telephone box. The church was completed in 1928.

A short walk from the High Street is the Wimbledon Traincare depot where they service trains from the South Western Railway. It is one of the busiest in the country.

Looking back from the rail bridge, you can see the numerous lines going into the depot.

The lines were very busy when I was there.

 By the side of the road leading up to the rail bridge is this large pub. There has been a pub on this site long before it became a residential area. The present Woodman pub was built in 1898 before many of the surrounding streets were developed.  It closed in 2017 but reopened recently as part of the redevelopment of the site. When Wimbledon Park was developed for housing, the Temperance movement was very strong and all the properties contained covenants against running a public house on the premises.

 

On the other side of the railway lines is an industrial site. I think this is a cement making factory judging by the number of cement lorries leaving the area but I could be wrong. I liked the design of the building which is why I photographed it.

This is Wimbledon Park Mosque which was established in the late 19th century. The Mosque stands out with its white minarets and green domes. As with most mosques, prayers take place here five times a day.

It is a fine building and I took a number of photographs. I was aware I was being observed, not from the mosque but across the road.

Less than 100 metres from the Mosque is this church which I also photographed. 

The man who had been watching me couldn't contain his curiosity any longer and from a distance asked why I was photographing a mosque and then a church. In fact, I am surprised more people don't ask what I am doing. As briefly as I could, I explained my mission. I like to engage with local people but I am careful not to indulge in political or religious conversations other than very general remarks. The gentlemen was a Muslim from the Yemen but had lived in England for a number of years. He was well travelled and interested in ancient religions. We were chatting for ages but I still think he couldn't really understand why I would want to photograph buildings.

I would have liked to have seen the window from inside the church but sadly it was closed.

I walked back to have a look at the area at the other side of the station. The main feature of that area is a Grade II listed Historic Park: Wimbledon Park. During the 16th century this area was a deer park of nearly 400 acres. In 1765 earl Spencer commissioned Capability Brown to landscape his estate and many of the improvements are still visible. Launcelot (Capability) Brown (1716-83) is best known for landscape on a huge scale constructing not only gardens and parkland, but planting woods and building farms linked by carriage drives. His work is still worth visiting today more than two centuries later especially places like Stowe. He created approximately 260 landscapes of which 150 still remain true to his original planning. He was nicknamed 'Capability' because he would tell his clients that their property had 'capability' for improvement.

I entered the park onto this viewing area which had steps leading down and round to Brown's Lake

The lake is large enough for a number of water sports.

There are two different playgrounds for children as well as a number pf tennis, netball and basketball courts; football pitches, an athletics track and beach volleyball courts which I have never seen in a park before.

There is also a crazy golf course as well as an attractive 18 hole golf course, but as I mentioned in my previous post the golf course has now been purchased by Wimbledon Tennis Club.

I left the park and made my way home not realising it will probably be months before I can visit any more stations!